Many, if not most, passenger vehicles sport decorative outside trim. Typically, the trim of a passenger vehicle is configured as an elongated strip and is adhesively applied to the vehicle body.
Most vehicle trims include a decorative outer surface that faces away from the vehicle and that may be raised from the body of the vehicle. One or more contact flanges are opposed to the outer surface and extend side-by-side the length of the trim, and tape having adhesive deposited on both sides is applied to each contact flange. Then, the tape with trim is applied to the vehicle to hold the trim on the vehicle.
To hide the contact flanges from view when the trim is installed, the contact flanges are positioned beneath the outer surface of the trim. It can readily be appreciated that for trims in which the outer surface is to be raised relatively highly from the vehicle, to reduce cost and weight the trim is not solid, but rather a hollow cavity is established between the flanges and the outer surface during manufacture. For such trims, the contact flanges are spaced from each other to permit access to the cavity, which is required when injection-molding the trim.
Such molding is complicated, however, when the trim is to be configured with an outer surface, one or more contact flanges, and a cavity therebetween, particularly when the width of the trim is such that very little space exists between the contact flanges. More specifically, the mold must have a somewhat complex system of lifters and slides to form the contact flanges while establishing clearance between the contact flanges and interfering mold structure during removal of the trim from the mold.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a decorative vehicle trim which has an outer surface that is raised from contact flanges. Another object of the present invention is to provide a decorative vehicle trim which has an outer surface that is raised from contact flanges, and which can be made by injection molding. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a decorative vehicle trim which is easy to use and cost-effective to manufacture.